Hall-Putnam County senior Braden Curran caught a punt at the Red Devils’ 44-yard line Friday night and took off down the sideline.

“When I hit my first cutback, I saw Aiden Redcliff make a huge block for me,” Curran said. “That was it from there.”

Curran raced all the way to the end zone for a 56-yard return touchdown that put the Red Devils up two scores with just under 8 minutes to go.

“Oh my gosh, it was so exciting,” Hall senior Dylan Glynn said about Curran’s return. “I was so happy.

“It was very comfortable (having a two-score lead). We could really settle in. It was great.”

The stifling Hall defense did the rest as the Red Devils defeated Mendota 18-6 in the Three Rivers Conference Mississippi Division opener.

“It’s huge,” Curran said. “Weeks 1 and 2, in my opinion and a lot of people in (the Hall locker room), we should have won. But it is what it is. We persevered and we got the win tonight. That’s what matters.”

It was Hall’s first win of the season and first win under coach Nick Sterling, a Hall alumnus in his first season at the helm.

“Obviously, it feels great,” Sterling said. “It’s what we were expecting earlier. It’s good that we got that dub.”

The Red Devils relied on a strong defense and big plays to get by Mendota.

Hall limited the Trojans to 88 total yards on 42 plays with 37 of those yards coming on a touchdown run by Corbin Furar with 3:38 left in the third quarter that made it 12-6.

“A lot of it was effort,” Sterling said. “We had a blown play where we didn’t squeeze. You’ll hear us from the sideline yelling ‘stay disciplined.’ One play we were undisciplined and they ran right underneath us and we didn’t fill a gap.

“The focus all week was to stay disciplined and do what you’re taught defensively. I thought we had one of our better games. We’ve looked good all year on defense to an extent. We’ve had some wrinkles, but it’s new. All the terms, all the defensive planning, it’s not something these juniors or seniors have seen in a while. It’s completely different from last year.”

Mendota coach Jim Eustice said the Trojans, who lost quarterback Aden Tillman to a leg injury late in the first half, didn’t block well enough.

“Our defense was outstanding once again,” Eustice said. “When our defense plays like that, we’ve got to be better on offense up front. We got manhandled. Ultimately, that’s on me. We’re going to be back to the drawing board on who’s playing up there and what we’re doing up there because our defense is playing too well for us to only have a few first downs like we did.

“It was a bad night up front. Our receivers could not get off the ball. They were playing man coverage. We knew it all week and our receivers were not tough enough to get off and get into routes. Aden got hurt and Javier (Hernandez) did a heck of a job trying as the backup, but overall offensively it was an abysmal night.”

Defensively, the Trojans made it difficult for the Red Devils to move the ball, limiting Hall to 244 yards - 179 rushing and 65 passing - on 45 plays.

However, the Red Devils were able to break off two scoring plays of more than 45 yards.

On Hall’s second drive, Glynn scampered for a 58-yard TD with 6 minutes left in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead.

“I just saw the defense was all flowing to the left and I saw the right was wide open,” said Glynn, who ran for 143 yards on 19 carries and threw for 65 yards. “I just took it.”

After Hall forced a three-and-out on Mendota’s first drive of the second half, Glynn hit Redcliff on a screen pass that went 48 yards for a score to increase the lead to 12-0.

“The screens were wide open,” Glynn said. “They just weren’t seeing it. We just had to do our jobs.”

Hall-PC (1-2) plays host to Sherrard (0-3) next week. The Tigers’ forfeited to Princeton in Week 3 due to an illness on the team.

The Trojans (0-3) travel to Monmouth-Roseville (3-0) in Week 4. The Titans beat Kewanee 55-7 on Friday.